Why it works: Capers and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,637 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Leg of Mutton Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut off the small bone at the end of the leg of mutton, leaving the meat to cover the joint.
Boil and simmer
Place the mutton in a kettle of cold water and bring it to a boil quickly.
Once boiling, reduce the heat and simmer slowly until the meat is cooked through.
Make the caper butter and serve
In a separate bowl, stir ½ cup of capers into 1 pint of drawn butter.
Serve some of the caper butter over the mutton and the rest in a gravy boat.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Capers + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,637 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + caperstop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together199 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton leg
- Lean, firm meat that becomes tender through long, gentle simmering in water.
- Capers
- Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the butter.
- Drawn butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, coating moisture to the meat and capers.
The step that matters
Simmer slowly after boiling. Once the water reaches a boil, lowering the heat to a gentle simmer keeps the meat from toughening. A hard, rolling boil tightens muscle fibers and dries the outer layer, so the meat turns stringy rather than tender.
Swap the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, butter):
- Pepperfits better
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Capersthe original
- Thymefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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